Revamp Farmers Market System

January 28, 1986

UNLESS THE Legislature is presented with a total picture of how Florida`s system of 17 farmers markets can be revised and improved, a $550,000 proposal to expand the Pompano State Farmers Market should be put on hold.

A task force appointed by Agricultural Commissioner Doyle Conner is rushing to put together by Feb. 1 a report that will outline the economic status and physical condition of each of the state-owned and -operated centers that serve as distribution points for Florida-grown agricultural products.

Conner should pass along that package to the Legislature as quickly as possible, so that an overhaul of the system can be acted on in one year.

Otherwise, the Department of Agriculture may be faced with the difficult task of convincing legislators two years in a row to make large capital investments in state farmers markets.

Whatever appropriation may be granted to update and improve the 50-year-old system of farmers markets, the decision should be based on the system as a whole -- not on the individual request for the Pompano Beach market, which serves as a distribution point for crops grown in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

While improvements to the Pompano State Farmers Market, such as making it a wholesale distribution center and a retail market, are definitely needed, legislators need to remember that the farmers market system is an inter- related one.

Operating financially as a self-supporting operation, farmers markets have not required infusions of state funds. It is becoming clear, however, that such independence has not necessarily been good for the system. A lack of state investment in capital improvements -- such as those recommended for the Pompano State Farmers Market -- has led to a decline of earnings at some markets.

Markets in Pahokee in Palm Beach County and two others in North Florida have been in the red in recent years, requiring markets that operate profitably to support the money-losing operations.

Some of the failures can be attributed to dilapidated and outdated facilities, market changes and poor management decisions, and the task force is expected to point out exactly what problems have hurt specific markets.

The plan to add a wholesale distribution center to the 40-year-old market in Pompano Beach is justified, but only if the state`s entire farmers market system gets equal consideration.